To be able to shift faster, you have to swap the stock shifter for a short one. On a short shifter, the top of the shift lever is shortened, while the part being under the pivoting point is extended. For many cars a short shifter is available, but unfortunately not for the third generation Prelude. So make it yourself! Pictured is one unmodified and disassembled.
Because the bottom of the lever will be extended, the bracket that holds it has to be raised. I ground some material off the top of the bracket, so that the plastic center console barely fits over it.
.With a Dremel tool I cut the welds of the bracket. I try to cut the welds only for the bracket to remain intact.
After cutting all welds, the bracket is detached from the frame.
Here I cut off the upper and lower part of the shift lever. The cut off piece of the upper part will be used to extend the lower part. New thread will be created on the shortened upper portion of the lever.
The bracket is raised two centimeters by welding in two metal plates on both sides.
You can see that a part of the frame was cut out. I did this, because the bracket was raised by two centimeters, while the lever was extended downward by 2.5 centimeters. So the distance between the lever and the shifter frame was decreased by 0.5 centimeters. This would cause problems because the shifter cables will interfere with the frame. This problem is dealt with by cutting out the portion of the frame beneath the shifter cables, as there's some space between the frame and the chassis of the car.
This is the modified shift lever. The top is rethreaded and the bottom is extended by 2.5 centimeters, by welding in between a piece of the cut-off top.
The short shifter reassembled.
Clearly visible here is the hammer-like thingy located on the shift lever. It ensures that the lever cannot be pushed forward or backward too far, so that the ball joint operating the lever in the bracket isn't stressed too much.
Because the bottom of the shift lever was extended, the hammer-like device is located lower now, not touching the front and rear of the bracket anymore. So now there's no longer a 'bump stop'. By welding an extra metal plate to both the front and rear of the bracket, that problem has been solved as well.
The extra metal plate on the front.